Frank Field, the chairman of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, told The Independent: “It seems as though a small army of unemployed young people have fallen through the gaps in the safety net without any official data recording whether they are destitute."

The government’s green paper on social care must form the basis of a longer-term funding settlement for the welfare state: a “strategic welfare review”, drawing lessons from the established strategic defence review.

The aim of the bill I am drafting with Sir Nicholas SOAMES is to place the abolition of long-term unemployment at the heart of a post-Brexit reform agenda. It would do so by introducing a new duty under which the government guarantees six months’ paid work in the private, voluntary or public sector, for people who either have joined or are at risk of joining the ranks of the long-term unemployed.

Over a half of all MPs have already agreed to link their constituency with the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy (QCC). Each MP will receive a tree from the Woodland Trust, supported by Sainsbury’s, to plant in their constituency. The trees will be sent to be planted in October this year. 363 down, only 287 to go.

Frank Field, Labour MP and chair of the pensions committee, said the government should introduce a short bill in which it guaranteed workers basic rights and paved the way for further legislation on more complex matters in future.